Does Normal ALT Exclude Severe Hepatic Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C?
Abstract #120 ALT is an enzyme that is released from liver cells when they die. In the past, ALT was used as a primary marker of liver disease. HCV-infected individuals with persistently normal ALT are thought to have no or minimal fibrosis. Therefore, the issue of whether or not these individuals should be treated for HCV infection remains controversial. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of normal ALT at the time of first evaluation for liver disease and to determine the amount of inflammation and scaring in HCV-infected individuals with normal ALT. Twenty-five out of 198 consecutive HCV-infected individuals had normal ALT. There was no difference in basic demographic characteristics including gender, age, duration of infection, and route of acquisition between those individuals with normal ALT values and those with persistently elevated ALT values. However, several other laboratory parameters including total bilirubin (p = 0.01), AST (p= 0.0005), serum iron (p =
